Cia Ilíadahomero brings full Homer epics to Brazilian stages

The Paraná‑based Cia Ilíadahomero de Teatro, founded in 1999, is the only Brazilian troupe that systematically stages the complete texts of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Directed by Octavio Camargo, the company performs the epics in a wide range of venues across Brazil—including theatres, libraries, museums, bars, public squares and even on Rio de Janeiro’s SuperVia trains—aiming to revive the oral, rhetorical dimension of the ancient works.

Camargo explains that presenting the poems live “gives them voice and body,” allowing audiences to experience the “living rhetoric” that originally accompanied oral recitations. The productions use the 408‑page translation of the Odyssey by Manuel Odorico Mendes and the Iliad’s roughly 15,600 verses, emphasizing their lasting relevance to universal human questions of fear, loss and the condition of humanity.